Once upon a time on a nice sunny morning, a little gray Puskin was hurrying to school, for he had dressed himself very slowly that morning and was afraid he would be late and be scolded by his teacher.

Just when he was rushing by the hollow oak tree, he saw an old brown Puskin sitting on the three-cornered stone nearby, holding her foot and crying. "Come here, come here, little Puskin", she called. "I need help and everybody passes by and will not stop."

The little gray Puskin felt sorry for her and in spite of being so late, he stopped and asked, "How can I help you?"

"I have a long thorn stuck in my foot and I can't reach to get it out.
Will you pull it out for me?", said the old brown Puskin.

The gray Puskin looked at her poor sore foot. He could see the thorn, but could not get hold of it with his fingers. It was broken off too short. He knew the old Puskin was suffering great pain and as he was kind-hearted, he wanted to help her, so what do you suppose he did?

He stooped down and pulled the big thorn out with his little teeth!

The old Puskin was so surprised at his kindness and was so grateful, she patted him on the head and said, "Although I have great power, this is one time I could not help myself." She thanked the little gray Puskin, then she took a small Hazel twig out of her lucky pocket and gave it to him, saying, "If ever you are in trouble, come alone to this stone, and strike it three times with the Hazel twig and I will come to help you."

The little gray Puskin thanked her, tucked the Hazel twig into his pocket and hurried off to school. Wherever he went after that, he always carried the Hazel twig with him although he didn't believe the old brown Puskin could help him.

Long, long ago, this part of Puskinville was called "Mapland", because there were no streets and so Puskins, especially the little ones, would often lose their way. So the grown-up Puskins put a lot of painted stripes on the ground, which made the town look like a map.

The Puskins could follow the red line which would lead them to the store. They could follow the yellow line and get to the school. The white line went to the woods; the blue line to the bank; the orange line led to the prison and the green line went straight to the park, where there were swings and sliders and ballgrounds; and there was a big building where Puskins could go in to see free movies or to shelter from the rain.

One day a little purple Puskin was passing by the dark woods, where the naughty Grumpys lived. The Grumpys were hodling a meeting. They were whispering, but loudly, so the little Puskin overheard them planning to go to Mapland that night and break into the bank and take all the Puskin's savings.

"How can we get to the bank?". asked one naughty Grumpy.

"We have to follow a line, but I don't know which color", said another.

"Oh, I know the way", said a smarty Grumpy. "It's the blue line we must follow." And he was quite right.

So they planned that just when the moon came over the tall trees in the entrance to the dark woods, they would start.

The little Puskin ran lipperty - lopperty - lipperty - lopperty, as fast as he could to tell the Puskins of Mapland what danger they were in.

None of the Puskins seemed to know what to do. Some of them just clasped their paws together and groaned. Some just said "oooh, oooh" and some just shook their heads. Suddenly the little gray Puskin remembered the Hazel twig in his pocket and he said to himself, "Now I'll see if the old brown Puskin will really help."

Off he ran, lipperty - lopperty - lipperty - lopperty, to the three-cornered stone and stuck it three times with the Hazel twig. Right away the old brown Puskin appeared and asked what he wanted.

The little Puskin told her about the Grummpy plan to follow the blue line and rob the bank. Then the brown Puskin said, "You run back and tell all the Puskins to take pails of paint and brushes and make the blue line to the bank green and paint the green line which leads to the park, a bright blue. "This will fool the Grumpys. Then I will do the rest."

When the moon was high over the dark woods, out crept the naughty Grumpys who started for Mapland. All the Puskins hid in the park to watch what would happen.

Krumpetty, krumpetty, krumpetty, came the Grumpys to Mapland, and in the moonlight they saw the bright blue line. Up the line they scampered.
"This is easy, not even a Puskin in sight," said the leader, a naughty Grumpy who had only one eye.

Soon they reached the park and there in front of them stood the big movie building. It had a huge sign on it which the old brown Puskin had made. In great big letters it read:

BANK

The Grumpys all rushed inside, when BANG... the door slammed shut and immediately the old brown Puskin touched her wand and wished a magic lock on the door so it couldn't be opened! The Grumpys were trapped!

They screamed and yelled. They cried and punded on the door and on the walls but they couldn't get out. When they were terribly scared and tired, the old brown Puskin asked them if they would rather go to prison forever and ever or be sent back to the dark woods and never come to Mapland again.

Of course they chose to be sent back to the dark woods, so with one flick of her magic wand, the brown Puskin caused the big building full of Grumpys to go whizzing through the air, over all the painted lines of Mapland, then dumping all the Grumpys in the dark woods where they got all tangled up in the branches and had a dreadful time clambering down to the ground.

With another flick of the magic wand, the buidling went whizzing back and settled right where it belonged in the Puskin's park. The little Puskins, hiding behind the hedges in the park saw it all happen before their very eyes!

The little gray Puskin was praised by everybody for saving the bank through helping the old brown Puskin, who they knew now, was a real fairy.

The Puskins didn't bother to paint the lines over again, so now the blue line goes to the park and the green line goes to the bank, which was just as good, wasn't it?